The present disclosure relates to an infant seat for a shopping cart, and relates more particularly to an infant seat that can be mounted on a shopping cart at a selectable angle while permitting the shopping cart to retain a nestable feature.
Shopping carts typically have seats for children in an age range of from about 1 year to about 4½ years. The seats are often configured as part of the shopping cart frame, and are often designed to collapse toward a pivotable gate at a rear portion of the shopping cart, e.g., where a push handle is located. The seat configuration is collapsible to permit the shopping cart gate to pivot upward to allow the shopping cart to be nestable with other like shopping carts. The seat configuration provided with such shopping cart configurations are typically unsuitable for use with infants, such as may be the case with children under about 12 months of age.
Infant seats are available that are designed for portability, and include a handle for lifting and carrying the portable infant seat. Such infant seats are often designed to mate with a platform suitable for arrangement in a vehicle, so that an infant can be secured within a vehicle while being easily carried by hand outside the vehicle.
A number of portable infant seats are designed to permit the infant seat to be temporarily mounted on a shopping cart. The location for the infant seat is typically above the collapsible seat configuration, so that the infant seat rests on a back support portion of the collapsible child seat and rear wall of the shopping cart near the push handle. Typically, the design of the portable infant seat attempts to accommodate a number of different shopping cart models, where the shopping carts may have different shapes or dimensions for the supports that are to be used by the portable infant seat. Due to the vast variety of shopping cart configurations, it is generally the case that a given portable infant seat configuration will not be stably supported in every shopping cart model. This practicality can create challenges for the person(s) caring for an infant while attempting to use a shopping cart for shopping. Typically, a retailer or commercial environment may offer a single type of shopping cart for use by the customers. If a customer's infant seat does not stably mount to the particular shopping cart model that is available, the customer is left with several less desirable options. For example, the customer may choose to simply carry the portable infant seat while pushing the shopping cart resulting in a less than ideal shopping experience. Alternately, the customer may choose to place the infant seat in the basket of the shopping cart, where the infant seat is not well secured and may not be evenly supported. Indeed, portable infant seats are involved in about 4% of all shopping cart related injuries. It would be highly desirable to provide a safer, more secure infant seat for a shopping cart.
Infant seats have been installed permanently on shopping carts to overcome some of the drawbacks discussed above. For example, one known design provides a tubular metal frame on which a molded foam rubber seat is mounted, typically secured with nuts and bolts. The tubular metal frame is secured to the shopping cart, either on the collapsible seat portion, the pivotable gate, or the rear wall or another shopping cart structure generally in the region of the push handle. The tubular metal frame is typically secured to the shopping cart with U-bolts and nuts threaded onto the U-bolts.
The above-described infant seat has the advantage of being securely attached to the shopping cart to obtain a significant increase and stability for the infant seat. In addition, the shopping cart can typically nest with another shopping cart without interference from the appropriately mounted infant seat. However, such a shopping cart infant seat configuration has several challenges with regard to longevity and flexibility. The tubular metal frame is typically composed, at least in part, of a ferrous metal or alloy for reasons of practical cost and strength of the frame. Accordingly, the frame tends to have a relatively short lifespan, due to deterioration through corrosion or rusting. In addition, the tubular metal frame is generally configured in a fixed shape. The infant seat is therefore mounted at an angle that is generally determined by the relationship of the tubular frame to the portion of the shopping cart to which the tubular frame is mounted. Due to the wide variety of shopping cart configurations, the angle at which the infant seat is mounted can vary widely, leading to less than optimal conditions for supporting an infant on the shopping cart.